Modern FNM

FRIDAY NIGHT MAGIC!!! 

Surprisingly enough, even though I've attended prereleases, launch events, and a peppering of Grand Prixs I have not gone to an FNM yet. Crazy right? Anyway, a few co-workers and I decided to all go as a group because our local shop was running a Modern FNM rather than their normal standard. Earlier this year, as popularity in the format increased, they began holding the occasional Modern tournament, mostly on weekends of prereleases and set launches.

I've been playing two decks with my friends for the last few months: UR Storm and Affinity. There are a lot of options out there, some more complicated and fun than others. Cost is also a HUGE factor in the decks I play. And let's be real here, Modern is not a cheap format to get into even with Modern Masters injecting the current supply.

So how'd I do? Well I went with my Affinity deck since it requires less thinking compared to the UR Storm deck I run. As my first go at an FNM, I wanted to just relax and have fun and Affinity was that for me. It ended up being 5 rounds and I went 3-2. I think I could have gone 4-1 and won prizing but my sideboarding was a bit off and will probably need some work.

4x Darksteel Citadel

4x Blinkmoth Nexus

3x Inkmoth Nexus

3x Glimmervoid

1x Mountain

1x Island

4x Vault Skirge

4x Signal Pest

4x Ornithopter

4x Arcbound Ravager

4x Steel Overseer

3x Memnite

3x Master of Etherium

2x Etched Champion

4x Mox Opal

4x Springleaf Drum

4x Cranial Plating

4x Galvanic Blast

Sidboard

3x Wear//Tear

3x Whipflare

3x Shrapnel Blast

2x Ethersworn Canonist

2x Grafdigger's Cage

2x Welding Jar

Round 1 - Gifts Ungiven

Started off my night against a 4-color gifts deck. The brief conversation we had before the match led me to believe this gentleman was pretty experienced. And yup....he was. On top of the skill level, I also didn't have the greatest hands. Game one drew me no real juice and gave him an Engineered Explosives for 1 (bye bye Signal Pests) and game 2 started with me mulliganing to 4 on the play >_<

Off to a rocky start but I'm more comfortable in this setting now. I've gotten the first round jitters out and am pumped to not scrub out.

 

Round 2 - BW Tokens

Ended up being matched with one of my friends. We'd play tested a few times over the last few weeks as he was deciding on a Modern deck to pilot with his decision being the BW tokens deck. After all of games though, I always felt my deck was fairly strong. As long as I could draw the right juice, I'd be fine. And then after sideboard, the deck would be even better.

I won game one with the normal swing in for lethal using Cranial Plating. The real games began after sideboard. He brought in the appropriate pro red creatures, knowing that the most widely used spells are Pyroclasm and in my case, Whipflare. With key Zealous Persecutions against my 1/1's, he was able to establish board control fairly easily. For game 3, I boarded in my Whipflares and Wear//Tears. Whipflares for the obvious board wipes and Wear//Tear to Tear down his Intangible Virtues. Luckily, he did not draw his Burrenton Forge-Tendor so my Whipflares did their job.

Round 3 - UW Affinity

I should have realized when my opponent told me he cobbled the deck together last minute that it would be a little different of an experience. It was sort of a mirror match though he was using cards that were more popular a few years ago and from a different format. He was still running Frogmites and even ran Tempered Steel. Aside from a lucky fast hand in game 2 (triple Signal Pest + Master of Ethereum), I won pretty easily.

Round 4 - Mono White Hatebear

Nice guy. We ended up talking about how I could have won game 2. We both were staring at the board state and I started saying "Well looks like you have it." but his perplexed look kept me in the game trying to figure out if I was missing something. I ended up saying we can still go to game 3 because I didn't really care if I won or lost so we ended up just trying to see if I could have won. What ended up happening was we both were focusing so heavily on winning with Infect counters from my Inkmoth that we missed converting that damage from Infect to regular using the Blinkmoths. We both had a good laugh about it and moved on to game 3. Not much to say about the game. I ended up with 2 flyers, a Cranial, and 2 ways to generate black mana. I don't very often get to use Cranial's instant speed attaching ability but it was a pretty sweet tool here.

Round 5 - BW Tokens

Oh, this one hurt. He 2-0ed me but I felt like I could have won both. I couldn't draw the juice again and being on the play, I didn't want to thin my hand out too much when I'm trying play out 4-5 cards turn 1. After sideboarding in the Whipflares and Wear//Tears, I wasn't able to clear out his board enough for my creatures to swing in. 

In the end I came in 6th out of 17. I performed the best out of my play group but felt like I could have made top 4. I learned a lot about my LGS and building the appropriate sideboard. The manager said he would be holding a Modern FNM once a month since the turn outs been increasing so I'll be sure to ready my deck for next time.

Spoils of War

With the weekend's Grand Prix in Las Vegas over and our mental wounds licked clean, I gotta say it was a pretty awesome experience. Not only in the competitive sense but being a part the biggest event that Magic's ever had is something we'll have forever. 

But that's enough jibber jabber on that topic. I'm here to talk about how it went. Clearly I made day 2 and won the entire thing. I'm on my way to the pro tour, practicing with all the greats as I type this. I'm just that awesome.

In a world where I had all the free time of a bum and all the money of a working stiff, then maybe this could be the case. But seeing as how this is more reality than anything, I, in fact, did not make day 2 and actually dropped after 4 rounds. Sad I know. You could even say I was robbed! But let's not dwell. I've learned so much from this experience and had a fun time along the ride. Here are some shots of the event over the 3ish days I was there.

Imagine this scene multiplied by 20. That's how crazy the venue and turn-out ended up being. The event totaled at 4500 for the actual event plus whoever else just showed up to do side events. The lines for everything were crazy. My group ended up getting there at 7 AM on Friday to check in and get our prereg card and playmat. Even at 7 AM, we were around #600 in line. Ridiculous.

A few artists were there like Daarken, Steve Argyle, and Chris Rahn. Like I've mentioned before, I really enjoy the art of magic and it's awesome how they can come out to these events for fans to meet them. One day I'll be able to meet Raymond Swanland and Todd Lockwood. One day...

They had a pretty cool setup near the artists to showcase some of the art used in Modern Masters. I kind of wish they had it out in an area with more traffic but even still, people swung by to check it out.

And now for the spoils. While I may not have come away with the grand prize of $3000 (?), I did come out on top with the cards I did pick up. Combined with my girlfriend's pool, we definitely made our entry fee back. Most notable and profitable was the Tarmogoyf I pulled during the free mini-masters side event. We also got a foil Arcbound Ravager and foil Kira, Great Glass Spinner plus some nice commons and uncommons that are worth a few dollars. In the end, we didn't walk away empty handed and had fun in the process. I can't wait for the next event to roll around in my area because I'll be damn sure to sign up for it.

Brave New World

So a week's gone by and now that all the dust has settled, what do we have to show for it? Maybe a winner or loser? I don't know, but we definitely have some pretty fucking awesome games!

So I was lucky enough to attend E3 this year. The stars aligned and I was able to take a few days off to trek up to LA with my girlfriend and see what the industry had to offer for the coming year. The big deals this year, of course, were the next-gen consoles that Sony and Microsoft had announced earlier this year. Snarky comments and memes aside, both had very impressive line-ups and at least one thing that I was interested in. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of negatives to go around but we can get into that later. Onward to the sweet pictures!

I know E3 is normally about games and I just implied I would be talking about games so starting with action figures is definitely a bait and switch, but these prototypes are so awesome that I had to start with them. Play Arts, a Square Enix brand, has really upped their game with the quality of figures recently. They've done high detail figures for common Square IPs like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts but they also design products for other companies like Konami. They were showing off some new designs for Raiden (MGS2 version) and Liquid Snake (MGS1). And If they end up anywhere near the quality of the recent figures, I'm really looking forward to picking up some more junk to clutter my desk T_T.

I initially ventured over to the Sony booth because I wanted to try out their PS Vita games but got distracted by a little game called Transistor. Holy crap Supergiant Games is a crazy talented group of people. These are guys behind Bastion and with the success of that title, they've begun and seem to be pretty far along on their next game Transistor.

On the surface, it looks similar to Bastion. Isometric, action RPG. Ok, cool. I guess you guys have found your calling. But after playing it, you realize just how different the game is. While you can just go around smacking enemies like any other 3rd person action game, the real game is how you strategically set up your enemies so that you can pause the gameplay and then queue up actions. A seemingly beat'em up game suddenly becomes a strategy and tactical game. I'm really excited to see how this game turns out and will probably be supporting them when it does.

Initially, I hadn't felt very compelled to look into or care about Destiny. I haven't been big on shooters in the last few years and the last shooter that I really got into was probably Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on the PS3. As I write this out, I'm realizing I still don't really care about the usual shooter and what actually gets me going about this game are the RPG and multiplayer elements. I love picking a class at the start of a game and being able to customize them so they feel like they're mine. And then what makes almost any game infinitely better? Making it multiplayer. The demo they had at the Sony Press conference was crazy. Even though it started out a bit slow and felt like we had just been blind sided by a tech demo, once the world boss came into the picture and other parties started pouring in, I was hooked. You can check out the video here.

I'll be honest, video gaming hasn't been that interesting to me in a while. As we crept towards the end of the generation, I felt everything was becoming more and more stale. It didn't help that I had become so preoccupied with Magic but, big picture level, I don't know if actually made that big of difference. With these two new systems slated for this year and the sheer potential they both have, I'm super pumped to get back into console gaming.

This weekend, a few co-workers and I will be heading to Las Vegas for the Grand Prix. It's going to be so disgusting how much card playing is going to happen this weekend. I'll be back next week with musings and pretty pictures to accompany them. See ya :D

Nerdy Events

Can't say I don't enjoy my life. Being in the gaming industry definitely has its perks. Not only do I get to attend industry events like E3 but my company is full of people as nerdy as myself :D

Drafting really is a great thing. It can be a fun and social or strategic and cutthroat format depending on who you play with. Myself, I prefer the fun, social side of things. Why? Well if I already play standard and modern, I only have so much brain power to go around for all that complex thinking. I need my breaks too and choose to play some draft or EDH to get all the jitters out.

Most recently I've been drafting the new set, Modern Masters, just released this weekend. It consists of modern staples so you'll see cards like Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant. Check out the full spoiler here on Wizard's site: Spoiler

From the two drafts I have played so far and the one sealed event, it's increasingly impressive that Wizards was able to add in so many well defined archetypes into one set. You can go U/B Faeries, G/W Tokens, B/W Rebels, U/R Storm, U/W Affinity, and the list just goes on. And even with such a limited set of cards, each of these archetypes feel and play like they should.

But onto the actual games! My first draft was pretty abysmal. I attempted to go Esper Faeires but I made such a noob mistake. I could see what was being passed to me and I knew I should have gone those colors but I really didn't want to go red and forced the U/B/W instead. Well....that led to a 0-3 record. So I'm off to a rocky start but that doesn't shake me.

A few of us head out to a local shop the next day to draft some more. Since we kept what we pulled and I wanted to somewhat break even on a $30 draft, I opted to pull the rares if they were worth anything and not in my colors. Yes, I'm a terrible person but can you really blame me for wanting to get my value out of it?

Anyway, pack 1 was fairly easy for me. The rare was Sarkhan Vol. Pretty playable if you ask me since right out the gate he can buff all your tokens or steal your opponent's giant for some beats. Based off the previous night's draft and what I had been reading online, people aren't really fans of the GR beatdown so it was fairly easy for me to get some solid creatures and tricks. My deck went 3-1 that night and I think I ended in 4th place. Not too shabby.

The sealed that a few friends and I did was much different. We were practicing for the upcoming GP in Vegas so we were playing and giving out opinions very constructively. I LOVE playing this way where everyone is trying to learn rather than win at any cost. I attempted to go for the dredge and retrace deck but just couldn't get the engine going. I was missing key cards and was definitely trying to get the combo going too early, costing me plenty of games. I ended up switching to U/W Affinity and went undefeated with the deck. By the way, Cryptic Command is a pretty good card.....just saying.

I'll be drafting more in the coming days leading up to the GP. I'm not saying I'll be cracking day 2 but I definitely want to give it my all so I can come back and share the deets!

ALSO, I'll be going to E3 this week so for sure I'll be uploading some pictures and talking about my experiences. 

So now that the weekend is over and Dragon's Maze pre-releases have wrapped up, I gotta say I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. It was a fairly successful event even if I didn't pull any bombs. Here's the rundown. I went with Gruul since aggro is usually strong at events like these and I also went 3-1 during the Gatecrash pre-release with Gruul. Unfortunately, my secret ally ended up being Izzet. I'll be honest and say I wasn't that happy about with it but my friends calmed my fears and convinced me that Izzet had some pretty good cards too. Especially removal ; )

Well after deck construction began and opening packs, I decided to go Naya with a focus on Gruul. I had gotten some pretty good Boros cards to help fill out the deck: two Viashino Fireblades and 1 Warleader's Helix was what I splashed white for. Overall, I only ever lost games because of mana screw or just not drawing enough creatures. While playing a Dimir player, I lost the first game because I couldn't play enough creatures to stop him from casting the Dimir champion Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker.

Well, I lost that game pretty handily. After sideboarding, we played out a few turns (maybe 4 or 5) and I was able to smash in for 16 damage with one creature. Can't say I wasn't happy about that. Gruul is all about reckless damage and brute force. What's more reckless and forceful than a 16/1 creature? How did I get that? Well LET ME TELL YOU. I was able to cast a Madcap Skills onto Feral Animist. Then bloodrushing and using its activated ability to rocket it up to 16 for the win.

The round that I lost, though, was a bit disappointing. He was playing Rakdos and playing very straightforward. I've matched against him in the past and know he's not the greatest player. Unfortunately, because of card draw, I just could not get board presence in anyway. So there went my chances of a 4-0. But that's ok. I was still able to maintain composure and get my 3 wins. Which leads us to my final match. This was a Naya player as well but focused on Selesnya. Mid-game he began playing health regen cards which really begins to hurt against an aggro player. At some point, you just lose steam and can't break through their walls anymore which is what happened game 1. But thanks to some more Mad Cap skills and a clutch Street Spasms for 1 ._. I was able to steal the win.

The prizes didn't really having any cool cards in them either. I was hoping for the Golgari champion Varolz, the Scar-Striped because I've been theory crafting a Jund zombie deck that doesn't require Falkenrath Aristocrat (what? I'm sorta cheap) but we'll see how that turns out.

That was my pre-release in a nutshell. Pretty fun though I think I enjoyed RtR and GTC a bit better. Should we point out what card someone pulled that's hinting at Modern Masters? In case you haven't seen it, someone opened a pack that had Aether Spellbomb. I'm starting to get giddy over the set but at the same time wish it wasn't going to be so expensive but that's a topic for another day! Thanks for stopping by! Now time for me to sleep.

Epic Landscapes

[Edit] HA well it turns out they didn't that far ahead? From the PAX East panel they mentioned how they went back to the artists who created those guildgate pieces and asked them to expand upon them. WELL THEN. Still cool nonetheless. :D [Edit]

The art of Magic. Nothing gets me more pumped than when the new art for cards begin to appear on sites. And this is a really exciting time with spoilers popping up all over the place, most recently at PAX East in Boston. You don't need card names or descriptions to appreciate the imagery and they give players a view into the Magic universe, helping set the tone for a color in the set.

Dragon's Maze, the last set in the Return to Ravnica block, has begun revealing its lands and a handful of creatures. While the creatures are getting plenty of attention because of their role in the lore (champions for each guild and all legendary) I'm really enjoying how the guildgates look. For those who have been playing this block, you know what the gates are. But for anyone who isn't quite aware, the guildgates were lands that allow players to tap for 1 of 2 colors. What makes this last set interesting is they are reprinting all 10 of the guildgates from the first 2 sets but instead of using the same images as before, they have zoomed out to reveal the full size of the picture. I don't think anyone was expecting that. Nobody thought the original pictures used were just small snippets of the actual piece. Here's are some examples of what Wizards has done. And in case it needs to be mentioned, I don't own these images. I just REALLY admire them and everyone involved in creating them.

Section

Full

Section

Full

Pretty cool eh?

In general, the art has always been a huge part of the appeal for me. What can I say? I like stuff that looks cool. I sometimes want to use cards just because they look interesting. In games with character customization, I spend much longer than a human should on creating the looks. ^_^

One of my favorite artists is Raymond Swanland. Along with art for Magic, he's also done work with Games Workshop and Cryptozoic's World of Warcraft TCG. Probably my favorite card by him would be Lightning Helix.

Overall, what has always stood out to me about his art is how much energy is going on in a scene. The figures and scenery are never solid and there is always a sense of action or activity. It's not quite at the level of being called busy because all the flare surrounding the focus of the image has a purpose and fits the theme of the picture. My girllfriend and I shorthand his style as the swirlies. You can see his work for Magic here.

I attended PAX Prime in Seattle last year and from what I learned at their panel, they are really putting more focus on having the images set the tone for the block. With what they've done in RtR, I'm really looking forward to how epic in scale the next block, Theros, will be. 

Intermission

Hey all!

It's been awhile since I've posted but like all good things, moderation is key...? Something like that right?

Anyway, I've been trying to figure out what I want to focus on. I've been pretty bored of the current standard format. You have Jund Control and Naya Aggro decks. And while I understand that the color combinations will always be there, the main cards are all the same and I've just been growing tired of them.

What do you have? Thundermaw Hellkite, Huntermaster of the Fells, Thragtusk, Boros Reckoner, and Restoration Angel. Sure, you could say we have 5 powerful cards, all with synergies, that we can then build decks around (I know, this sounds like sarcasm, but bear with me) but when you see the same cards in multiple decks with just minor tweaks, the format feels tired. Don't get me wrong, it's still fun winning with them ; ) but when you watch the games, everything begins to feel samey. So what I'm really getting at is I'm waiting for a massive shift in the format before I really dive back in. What will do it? Maybe someone needs to discover a new deck that is unstoppable in the current format, forcing the community to build decks to better counter it. Or maybe the players have just figured out all this meta has to offer and we need the next set to show up or Innistrad to rotate out.

But let's be honest. This is a very healthy format. All the current decks are seeing just the right amount of play to keep each other in check. We aren't seeing the situation like before RtR released with UW Delver was running rampant. So really what I'm saying is I'm ready for some change. My ADD (I don't really have it but that's what we do right? We blame it on ADD) wants to see new things being played. New flashy cards and combos. =)

Kudos to Wizards. Designing these last few sets of cards to be very well balanced. It's been a bit since there's been such a stable format.

No worries, we got this...

Hi again Planeswalkers. I'm sure you've all become aware of this little card known as Boros Reckoner and its effect on the current metagame. While it may seem very powerful at the moment, I wanted bring up a little card that has not seen too much play in standard but plenty in Modern. Abrupt Decay.

Abrupt decay is an instant spell that can destroy a target nonland permanent that costs 3 or less and for only the cost of 1 black and 1 green. Oh, and it's uncounterable. A perfect fit for Jund, Abrupt Decay can fend off the popular cards in both the aggressive and control decks.

I really admire Wizards for designing this card. It's crucial in a defined Modern format but has so much potential in an uncharted Standard format. While a large number of cards that Abrupt Decay can target right now will rotate out later this year, it's really set up to keep things in check as we move forward into the sets.

For sure we can use Abrupt Decay against Boros Reckoner but any of the cheap costed red aggro cards such as Stromkirk Noble, Legion Loyalist, or Domri Rade are also worthy targets. And where does it fit against control? Blind Obedience. I see a lot of play for this card in the future as Esper control becomes more and more prominent. While the tap affect may not matter for decks that run Abrupt Decay, it can become very cumbersome to deal with the Extort on it. There's also Runechanter's Pike seen in the UWr midrange and control decks.

 There are so many valid targets for this card right now I'm surprised it's not talked about more. Maybe it is and I'm just hiding under a rock. But as the metagame shifts, I'm betting we'll begin to see this gem really shine so you better pick up your playset now!

*Originally posted February 13, 2013

Hi all! Hope everyone is excited with all the new Gatecrash cards out. If you're not building new decks and testing new ideas, then WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! GET TO IT! 

But before you do that, I wanted to discuss the recent bannings for the Modern format (effective as of Feb 1, 2013). Modern season is on its way and Modern Masters is coming this summer so I think we should all start thinking about this format to prepare for major events coming down the pipeline. 2 new cards have been added to the banlist and the one I want to focus on today is Bloodbraid Elf and the deck that ran it, Jund.

Jund refers to the Shard from the Shards of Alara block consisting of green, red, and black cards. Decks that run these 3 colors are thus referred to as Jund. These decks have been known for their strong resilience and flexibility in multiple situations but also their brute power to beat down opponent (red for removal, black for control, green for power). It's no wonder this has been such a popular (dominating?) deck in Modern and Standard. So I don't blame Wizards for banning a card in hopes of slowing it down a bit.

Bloodbraid Elf, while nice to have a 3/2 haste for 4, was best known for its Cascade effect. For anyone unaware with Cascade, once you play the card, you may exile cards from the top of your library until you reveal a nonland card that costs less and cast it for free. The other exiled cards then go to the bottom of your library in any  order. Pretty good right? Cascade into anything you need as all other cards in the deck cost less. Cast, for free, removal spells to establish board dominance. Get your Liliana out for hand control to grow your Tarmogoyf. Bloodbraid Elf definitely was a card that would get the engine going for Jund decks. Does it completely shutdown this deck with its banning? No, I don't think so. Jund still has all the other tools its always had to deal with any situation. BBE just made it that much faster for the deck to win.

Should we worry that another deck will sweep in and become uncontrollable? Will a deck that's way too fast and aggressive run unchecked? I hope not but I'm sure the folks at Wizards have playtested this decision thoroughly what with Modern season ahead of us.

And hey, for those of you that haven't been keeping up with Modern cards. Removal of BBE has nerfed Jund just enough where other decks are getting a chance to shine. Take a look at UrzaTron decks. Karn Liberated has jumped in price quite a bit to $35.00. Oh sorry. When I said jumped, I mean SKYROCKETED. Going from a $15-$20 card to $35 almost overnight!

I'm excited for the changes. I'm particularly excited because it feels like Wizards is looking to the future and planning ahead to make this format extremely  balanced and diverse.

*Originally posted February 13, 2013

Cheese

Cheesy win conditions. Who loves 'em? Wizards sure does. There always seems to be one every few sets but there are 5 in the current standard block. What gives? Well, at the very least, it gives for a more creative play from players. And who doesn't enjoy that rare occasion where you self-mill to victory like a Laboratory Maniac. Or where you tire of your opponent's antics and show him the Door to Nothingness. I ran out of cheesy puns since Wizards has decided to use names that are more flavorful (Darn you Wizards! You've won this Battle of Wits). 

Biovisonary

The card I want to talk about today is the Biovisionary. It's not that it necessarily fits in any sort of standard deck that would be competitive, but it sure as hell fits in my Riku of Two Reflections commander deck. As a commander, Riku will take any creature or spell you play and allow you to copy it. Simic colors for a creature and Izzet colors for spells. Color combinations make sense, no?

Riku of Two Reflections

As I had begun developing this deck and then scrapping it and then rebuilding it, I had decided on a steal and copy focused Riku deck. With him out, I could play Zealous Conscripts, dupe it, and then steal 2 creatures. Or play Entwine, exile four sorcery/instants and turn the tide of the game. With this play style, I also realized very quickly it was a deck that relied on my opponents to play crazy spells and creatures that I could then steal and copy. Luckily for everyone, this is commander where you play nothing but the crazy stuff. 

So here I am now with Biovisionary. You have 4 of him and you win. With a cost of 1GU, I'm thinking this is a fairly simple and easy win. With commander, it's not uncommon at all for you to have 10+ mana and playing with my deck, I've been able to stall out games for quite awhile. With that being said, a simple kicked Rite of Replication would do the job nicely. Or if you want to work a little harder for it. Have Riku out, cast Biovisionary and copy it. Then Cackling Counterpart for the 3rd  and hell, Phantasmal Image for the 4th. Yes I know, these are very specific cards but with a deck focused on copies, ending up with these cards is not too difficult. 

Or if I have Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker in my deck. Add in the new equipment Illusionist's Bracers to shake up that combo a little bit. 

What's really nice about this cheese card is that it checks for the conditions at the beginning of your endstep which makes this much more possible than any of the beginning of your upkeep cards.

Of course, I'm not a fan of winning with these types of cards. Nobody wants to play with someone who wins with Felidar Sovereign or by playing Infect in the Commander/EDH setting.

*Originally posted...I don't know

I'm a little confused by this new set that Wizards is releasing this month-ish. A little upset even. It's an 18 regular card and 10 oversize card set designed for Commander. For those who don't know, here's a little background on what Commander is. 

The older generation know it as EDH or Elder Dragon Highlander. The decks are made up of 100 unique cards minus the basic lands. 99 cards are you deck and 1 is your commander. He will sit outside of the deck, ready to be cast at any point while you draw through your 99 unique card deck. Why do I call it a casual deck? It can be fairly cheap especially compared to other formats like Standard or Legacy. I really enjoy commander since it allows me to use the most random or seemingly useless and unplayable rares that I've collected over the years.

Anyway, with that out of the way, back to the Arsenal. Wizards has created a set of cards that are classics or staples in commander decks. Awesome. Great. Where do I sign up? The problem though is the selection of cards are actually super common and not even that rare. If you are already into Commander, you probably have those cards already. Half of them were from the original decks or the recently released planechase sets. So when I saw this, I immediately wondered, "Oh, this is like a supplement for the casuals. They may have missed out on some of these cards or they didn't to do what some did and buy whole sets just for 1 or 2 cards in the set. Wizards, you are genius!" But then I see the price point is $80 and find out it's not carried by regular brick and mortar shops and only at gaming stores. When that happens, the prices will more than likely shoot up to way past their msrp ($299 on Amazon as of this posting) The same happens with the From the Vault sets ($80 for the newest set that msrps for $35). Why you do this Wizards? Why aim a product for a casual format at the hardest of the hardcore? To me, Commander is the format you should use to attract attention. Games don't end it 3 turns (usually) and ridiculous scenarios always come up. This format is the for fun, casual type and this set should have been for them.

*Originally posted September 06, 2012

Along with a few friends of mine, I was lucky enough to snag a 3-day pass to PAX Prime this year. Growing up and attending college on the east coast meant I missed out on a lot of events that occurred in gaming industry. If I recall correctly, E3 started out in the middle of the US before eventually migrating to the west coast. Most game companies setup shop in California too which meant no local events for us east coasters. So sad T_T But that's why I'm here in California where all the happenings happen. (b '' )b

Anyway, on to the PAX!

Short for Penny Arcade Expo, PAX has been and still is a convention for the fans. We have game developers, digital and tabletop, setting up booths to give players a chance to check out what will be coming down the pipeline. For me, the videogaming section of the floor was bit underwhelming but not because the showing was lackluster or the developers and publishers dropped the ball. Rather, I had the opportunity to attend E3 this year so the majority of games shown I had already seen, But that's ok! There was plenty more for me to enjoy. The tabletop games and the panels were definitely the highlight of my trip. But anywho, onto the pictures!

                                                       

                                                       

                                                       

I had heard rumor of these germ incubating cesspools they call "handheld lounges." Never thought I'd see one in person. While comfy, still feel icky afterwards.                                                               

                                                 

                                               

                                                   

                                                           

                                                                                                                                                                                                       Can't have a convention without dice and.....specically designed gaming tables? They were so impressive. One day, I'll have one in my home....one day.                                                                              

                                                                                                            

These 3 cosplayers really stood out to me because of the quality and subject matter. I'm a hugggggggge Monster Hunter and Magic the Gathering fan :3 The Jace was particularly awesome.                                      

                                                                                                        

                                          

 One of my highlights for the whole convention was the live Giant Bombcast show. For those that aren't familiar with them, they run a gaming news/reviews website and have a weekly podcast talking about general new in the industry.                                      

 

                       

 

Shot of the popcap booth. I really liked their setup with the lounge-ish feeling. Really makes you feel like a couch potato with the monitor so close.                                

 

                                            

StarCraft 2 had a small showing at Pax. Here's EGIncontrol casting. I forget who was playing but to give you an idea of just how small it was, he's looking over the shoulder of one of the players.                                                                                                  

                                          

  

Preparation for Hideo Kojima's interview and the preview for the new Metal Gear Solid game :3                                                                                                              

 

                             

Awesome statue for the upcoming Borderlands 2. Who's playing? :D                             

                         

 

Last but not least, here's a shot of the Magic the Gathering world building panel. Not only was Wizards awesome enough to give some pins and boosters to anyone who attended, the information was super interesting. It really dove into how the development team splits off duties and develops the lore and feeling behind the new set. I also really enjoyed the artists' explanation for how they designed symbols to match the feel of the set.                                                                                     

 

                       

Well that was my PAX experience in a nutshell. I want to go deeper into the Magic panel since Return to Ravnica spoilers are in full swing but that'll be saved for my next post. Until then though. :d

*Originally posted August 19, 2012

As my previous post may indicate, I enjoy me some Magic. What it may not show is  I spend a lot of my time reading up on the game, looking at cards, and wearing out the F5 key on the MtG subreddit. It's definitely a hobby that has taken over my life but let's move onto the point of this post. Playful decks.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making and playing competitive decks as much as the next guy. Who doesn't love spending hundreds of dollars on cards to be able to keep up with the arms race T_T. But really for me, it's the gameplay that I enjoy most. So here's a deck I've been toying around with recently. It doesn't have any real huge game winners or money cards but if it survives to turn 4 or 5, then the fun starts.

Creature (18)
4x Doomed Traveler
3x Dungeon Geists
2x Fiend Hunter
3x Restoration Angel
2x Spellskite
2x Stonehorn Dignitary
2x Sunblast Angel

Instant/Sorceries (11)
1x Cancel
2x Cloudshift
4x Mana Leak
2x Day of Judgment
2x Ponder

Artifact (4)
4x Tumble Magnet

Land (23)
4x Glacial Fortress
9x Island
10x Plains

Planeswalker (4)
2x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
2x Venser, the Sojourner

So as you can probably see, the point is to just tap all of their shit down. It doesn't matter what    it is, just tap it. I've mostly played against mono-green and green/white decks with this and so far it's been pretty effective at shutting them down. With Mana Leaks and Spellskites, you can defend against early pressures. Spellskite will soak up any direct damage spells and Mana Leaks will help delay or break up a combo for your opponent. Once you have your first Tumble Magnet down, you can begin to relax a bit. It'll help delay until you have your Dungeon Giests or Tamiyo.

If things get a bit too hairy and you can't quite stabilize, don't hesitate to blow a Day of Judgement early. This deck isn't meant to win turn 4 while your opponent's probably is. Plus the key cards for you aren't affected (artifacts, planeswalkers) so make use of those board wipes. For the real win here, you ideally have your Tamiyo with a few magnets or maybe a geist or 2 out. With all or the majority of their side tapped, you pop a Sunblast Angel.

Now that the most threatening cards on their side have been dealt with, you can swing in for some sweet flying damage. I've also kept in the Vensers and Stonehorn Dignitaries. This will help reset the counters on the magnets and reuse the Sunblast etb effects. Taking away your opponent's chance to do any significant damage is also fairly fun. Cloudshifts and Restoration Angels were added in to save key creatures or reset the geists' tapping effect.

So far this deck has been really fun to play. So much so that I want to keep it going for post Mirrodin rotation. There are a handful of cards that I would like to see in this deck at some point such as Downpour and Sleep but without a more permanent form of control that the magnets provide, I may be SOL. I'll have to see once Return to Ravnica starts to spoil. Maybe there'll be some sweet cards that I can swap in for this tap/flicker deck. Definitely looking forward to the coming months and what Wizards has to offer.

*Originally posted July 08, 2012

Hi there!

Though I wish I had a more significant or elaborate reason for beginning this blog, I really just want to talk about life as a nerd and the geek world as a whole.

With that being said, this blog will be dedicated to anything and everything nerdy. It will cover my general interests and possibly anything that will have an impact on the nerd world.

So let me begin with a topic that I hold near and dear to my heart.

Magic the Gathering.

This past weekend was the prerelease for the new 2013 core set. What is that? Well it's just a set of cards that will be available for use in competition for the next year. There are other sets out there currently and the core set is more of a supplement for what is currently being seen in tournaments.

But back to the prerelease. A prerelease event is just an early opportunity for anyone interested to play with the cards in a small tournament. I opted to participate in 2 this time. Midnight and another at 2pm. Sadly, I went home empty handed for both. Aside from the 6 packs you are given, I did not perform well enough to win any extra packs at either of the events.

T_T

My normal colors of choice are blue with a sprinkle of white or black but having pulled Thragtusk, the appeal was just TOO much and I went green/white at the midnight event. Horrible, horrible idea which ended in me misplaying a bunch and ending the night with 2-2 record (3-1 or 4-0 is needed for prizing). Fast forward to the 2pm event. I had swore I would never play a color that I just didn't enjoy. Well, that meant I would play some blue, some black, and some white. But that just wasn't in the cards either ; ). My pulls for all 3 of the those colors just wasn't strong enough to build a solid deck. Green again was a beast as I had pulled a Primordial Hydra. But no, performing even more poorly, I went home 1-3.

  

Have I mentioned how much I hate green? It's quite possibly the most straight forward way of playing Magic. Ramping up so you have significantly more mana than your opponent early on and just tossing out some beefy beasts. This just never appealed to me. Blue on the other hand makes every turn feel like a puzzle where thinking multiple turns ahead of your opponent is a must. 

But it's OK! It's all for the fun of the game and the spirit of competition, right? For sure. I don't have any aspirations for breaking in the competitive scene though playing just slightly above the casual level is quite enjoyable and if you ever see yourself dabbling into MTG, give it a shot. You never know how much you might enjoy it.

Now it's time for me to start building some new decks now that the set's release is in sight.

Thanks for enduring this wall of text.

Be seeing you ( " )^